- The Chinese Language –
The official language of The People’s Republic of China is called “Putong Hua” or
“the common tongue.” We refer to it in English as Mandarin. There is some
disagreement among linguists as to just how many Chinese “languages” there
actually are because so many dialects are spoken in different parts of the
country. This is due in large part to the fact that there are 56 officially recognized
ethnic groups within the boundaries of present-day China. In the south of China,
in addition to speaking Mandarin, people also speak Cantonese or “Guangdong
Hua.”
Mandarin is characterized by its four tones. Depending on what tone a word is
given, its meaning can vary quite dramatically. Tonal languages are generally
thought of by westerners as being extremely difficult to learn. While this may be
true, there are some enthrallingly easy aspects of spoken Chinese. For example,
words do not change endings in the plural, there are no tenses and there are no
verb conjugations!
“Tomorrow, I will go to the store to buy some things” would be translated as
“Mingtian wo qu shangdian mai dongxi” or “Tomorrow, I go store buy thing.” Such
foreign-sounding syntax takes some getting used to, but once the patterns are
learned, they can be applied to communicate countless ideas. Additionally, a
form of the roman script called pinyin can be used so that traditional Chinese
characters called ideographs or Hanzi can be written using our alphabet!
Following are some of the more common Chinese words and phrases, which are
written in pinyin. If you have a classmate or a friend who speaks Chinese, ask
him or her to help you out with the pronunciation. Pay special attention to the
tones!
Numbers
Some Common Phrases
One – Yi
Two – Er
Three – San
Four – Si
Five – Wu
Six – Liu
Seven – Qi
Eight – Ba
Nine – Jiu
Ten – Shi
How are you? - Ni hao ma?
Good Morning- Zaoshang hao (Morning good)
Good night - Wan an (Night peaceful)
Where are you going? - Ni dao nar qu?
What’s your name? - Ni jiao shenme mingzi?
Please help me - Qing ni bang wo de mang
Please come in! – Qing jin! (Please near!)
See you later – Zai jian
Thank you - Xiexie ni
You are welcome – Bu keji